Cocke County Millennials

07/18/2026

Pay attention, folks.

Organizers from Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Arizona share strategies for resisting data centers in other communities.

07/17/2026

At 3:30 this afternoon, my wife and I walked into the Election Commission in Dandridge to vote. For the moment, we were the only two voters through the door. Three or four others followed. There was no line, no crowd, no visible urgency.

It was only one moment in one place, and it would be irresponsible to call it evidence of turnout. But it felt symbolic.

Tennessee is choosing its next leaders at a time when wages, housing, healthcare, education, energy and environmental pressures are intensifying. Yet the political system offers voters candidates who speak fluently about growth, business and cultural conflict—and far less clearly about the lives people are actually living.

Perhaps the room was quiet because people were busy. Perhaps they had already voted.

Or perhaps too many Tennesseans have concluded that, whichever pea wins, the pod remains the same.

07/15/2026

A report came out: Tennessee is the worst state for Quality of Life.

State Senator Jack Johnson (Williamson County) disagrees.

The only time I encountered SENATOR JACK JOHNSON was when I addressed his committee advocating for a bill to let municipal electric utilities (in our case, Morristown) to connect their internet (FiberNet) to ours. I made the case on behalf of the 30% of Jefferson County students whose homes were not connected.

I played a clip from Without a Net -- The Digital Divide in America, in which students spoke about what internet access meant to them
(watch this clip, 56 seconds: ttps://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/265svi56qff1s31kmude7/1-Without-A-Net-The-Digital-Divide-In-America-Official-Trailer.mp4?rlkey=14x2lds6lv3a4cplapvfyrbjw&dl=0)

Things you should know about this: Morristown's FibreNet at the time (2014) had some 6,000 customers but it had the capacity to serve 400,000. It was profitable and paid $1,000,000 to Morristown in lieu of taxes. The other six utilities including Chattanooga were all profitable.

All we wanted across the state was to hook up -- at no cost to taxpayers. Our Senator Frank Niceley spoke on behalf of the bill, and voted for it. The vote failed 3-4 with the tie breaking vote from COMMITTEE CHAIR SENATOR JACK JOHNSON. He represents Williamson County, where the median household income was well over $100,000. The median household income in Jefferson County was less. He was disingenuous then. He is disingenuous now.

TN Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson is pushing back against a CNBC ranking that placed Tennessee last among states for quality of life.

01/07/2026

The Danger I live with, and maybe you do, too.

No Greenlander ever shut down my hospital.
No Canadian ever cut my wages.
No Venezuelan ever priced my kids out of housing.

The danger I live with wears a suit
and speaks my language.